DRUGS start washing ashore in Shetland, as Douglas Henshall returns for a third series of BBC1’s acclaimed crime drama.

Actor Douglas Henshall is delighted to report that Shetland, the BBC1 detective drama in which he stars, has received a favourable response from the audience he was most anxious to please – the inhabitants of the islands.

He admits that when he returned to Shetland after the first series, he was nervous about how the show had gone down on the remote Scottish islands, which form the backdrop to the drama.

After the very first episode went out, the Promote Shetland website crashed because so many people wanted to book accommodation on the islands

Douglas Henshall

Douglas, who heads the cast as troubled detective Jimmy Perez in this adaptation of the crime novels by Ann Cleeves, says, “The reaction was fantastic, because people on Shetland understood that we weren’t trying to make fun of the people who live there or the islands.

And when we went back to shoot the third series, everybody welcomed us back once more – they couldn’t have been nicer or friendlier or more helpful.

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'If viewers didn’t like the series before, I’m in trouble this time'

It was a relief because I was thinking, ‘If they didn’t like the series before, I’m in trouble this time’.”

Indeed, viewers across the UK have been impressed by the compelling stories and the austere yet breathtaking scenery that forms the backdrop.

Author Ann, 61, says, “After the very first episode went out, the Promote Shetland website crashed because so many people wanted to book accommodation on the islands.”

So what can we expect from the third series? The difference this time is that Jimmy is investigating a single crime over all six episodes.

Douglas, 50, who has also appeared in Primeval, The Secret Of Crickley Hall, Doors Open and Collision, says, “Something terribly untoward happens to a young man who goes missing on the ferry, and there’s no explanation as to where he’s gone.

But then there’s a lot of drugs being washed ashore on a beach and a little kid takes one, thinking they might be sweets. Perez goes to the beach and finds a bag that’s been thrown overboard from the ferry.”

BBC

'If you live in such a close community, so it really matters if something dreadful happens'

BBC

Shetland, Friday, 9PM,BBC1

The actor, who appears opposite Ciarán Hinds, Archie Panjabi and Anna Chancellor, adds, “It becomes very multi-faceted and the more they look into it, the worse and worse and worse it gets. Eventually, it spreads all the way to Glasgow, and so the investigation gets much broader and bigger this time. This is probably the darkest of the stories we’ve done.”

Jimmy plays a tortured widower who has returned to his native Shetland with his teenage stepdaughter, Cassie, after a long period working on the mainland.

Douglas, from Glasgow, says that in the new series the angst-ridden Jimmy has to face up to his demons. “He’s a bit more strung out. I think things are catching up with him. He’s losing places to hide.

You can’t keep working all the time and hope that all the things you’re keeping down aren’t going to slip out sideways. Eventually, he admits that he’s lonely and would like to maybe be with somebody, because once Cassie leaves to go to university he’s pretty much on his own. I think he’s got to deal with things a bit better this time.”

Ann, who once lived on the islands, reflects on why Shetland makes such a good setting for crime drama.

“It’s a small, enclosed community with a limited number of suspects. If the weather gets bad on Shetland, you can’t get off the island,” she says. “If you live in such a close community, you rely on your neighbours, so it really matters if something dreadful happens.

Also, a lot of people are related and everybody has been to the same high school. That enclosed feeling lends the drama a genuine intensity. And when you’re filming in dreadful weather with low clouds, it gives a claustrophobic sense of desperation, which adds to the drama.”

Ann assesses the enduring popularity of crime fiction: “When times are bad, it is reassuring that all the ends are tied up. Even if we can’t find resolution in life, we can find it in fiction.”

Douglas was thrilled to film some of this series on the streets of Glasgow: “That was a blast, as it’s my home city.

I still got a slightly childish pleasure out of thinking, ‘Look, we’re filming in my home streets’. It was great fun.”